The Director of Capital Planning serves as the primary day-to-day leader of the enterprise capital planning function, responsible for the execution and continuous improvement of processes that govern how Inspire Brands allocates capital across strategic priorities. This role owns the structure, rigor, and operating cadence that support capital decision-making for Shared Services capital, inclusive of Technology (Data, Digital, Enterprise Applications), and Inspire Company Restaurants (ICR) capital with scope over platforms, business intelligence, infrastructure, and other investments tied to measurable returns. The position serves as the enterprise capital planning lead by informing portfolio views, administering governance forums, maintaining investment evaluation standards, and ensuring executive leadership receives complete, comparable, and decision-ready analysis. The role also supports ongoing tracking of capital projects including budget verses actuals reporting, updated forecasts, and analysis of benefits realization. In addition to capital spend, the role oversees identification and consolidation of one-time and ongoing operating expense impacts created by business cases and coordinates handoff of ongoing costs to the relevant G&A Finance teams for budget ownership.
This position sits within our Atlanta based Global Support Center with an expectation to be onsite 5 days per week.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Serve as the day-to-day lead for enterprise capital planning, governance, and portfolio framing across Shared Services, inclusive of Technology, and ICR investment categories, ensuring all proposed spend is evaluated consistently against company priorities, timing constraints, funding capacity, and return expectations.
- Own the Capital Committee (CAPCOM) operating cadence, including agenda setting, portfolio sequencing, submission standards, pre-read expectations, and escalation of unresolved analytical or process gaps before items reach executive review.
- Support the continuous improvement of capital planning frameworks, including common project structures, hierarchy logic, business case requirements, return methodologies, sensitivity analysis, and value realization standards used across the portfolio.
- Partner with cross-functional leaders through business case development and investment trade-off discussions by pressure-testing assumptions, clarifying value drivers, and increasing consistency in how projects are evaluated across domains.
- Manage financial processes and partner with the business to provide updates on investments including accrual calculations and updated forecasts, analysis of variance drivers, and analysis of financial returns.
- Oversee the consolidation of one-time operating expense and ongoing operating cost impacts arising from approved and proposed business cases; ensure those impacts are clearly documented and formally communicated to the applicable G&A Finance teams for incorporation into their budgets and forecasts.
- Prepare recurring reporting, metrics, and portfolio analysis that increase transparency into capital deployment, financial performance, and value realization, while improving comparability across business cases and investment categories.
- Partner with Technology, Product, ICR, Brand, Accounting, Treasury, and Corporate FP&A teams to ensure financial outputs, planning assumptions, and project tracking remain accurate, complete, and aligned across systems and teams.
- Support long-range planning, annual planning, and periodic forecasting tied to the enterprise capital portfolio, including scenario modeling, timing alternatives, and capital sensitivity views across varying levels of project success.
- Prepare executive- and Board-level materials related to capital performance, portfolio alternatives, governance updates, major initiatives, and return expectations; ensure all outputs are accurate, concise, and decision-ready.
- Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities tied to capital planning, project tracking, and financial data quality, including enhancements to planning tools, reporting assets, and operating procedures that improve scale and repeatability.
- Lead and develop a high-performing enterprise capital planning team by setting clear role scope, coaching direct reports, establishing quality expectations, and ensuring the team operates with strong analytical rigor and effective cross-functional partnership.
EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE QUALIFICATIONS
- Required: Bachelors degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business or a related field.
- Preferred: Masters degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, or Strategy and/or CPA, CFA, or similar professional certification.
- EXPERIENCE QUALIFICATIONS:
- Required: 8+ years of relevant experience across FP&A, capital planning, strategic finance, investment analysis, project finance, or comparable corporate finance functions.
- Required: 3+ years of progressive leadership experience managing professionals in a matrixed organization and directing work across multiple functional stakeholders.
- Preferred: Experience supporting enterprise technology, digital, data, other shared services, and/or multi-brand restaurant capital portfolios.
- Preferred: Experience operating in governance environments involving executive review, capital committees, portfolio prioritization, and cross-functional investment planning.
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, or ABILITIES
- Deep understanding of capital planning, investment analysis, and return methodologies, including DCF, IRR, NPV, ROI, payback, break-even, and scenario/sensitivity modeling.
- Strong strategic and financial judgment with the ability to evaluate investment trade-offs across multiple business domains and distinguish material drivers from noise.
- Advanced ability to manage business case frameworks, value realization approaches, and project financial tracking processes.
- Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex issues into concise insights and present clearly to senior leadership.
- Strong knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, accounting concepts, and the interaction between capital, depreciation, and operating expense impacts.
- Advanced analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills with the ability to identify alternative solutions, assess consequences, and challenge assumptions constructively.
- The ability to partner effectively with Technology, Product, Brand, ICR, Accounting, Treasury, and Corporate FP&A stakeholders.
- High degree of accuracy, discretion, and confidentiality in handling sensitive financial, strategic, and organizational information.
- Expert-level proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, including development of complex models, executive presentations, and portfolio reporting.
- Strong working knowledge of enterprise financial and planning systems, including Oracle, Hyperion/ePBCS, Power BI or similar reporting tools, and related data environments.
PREFERRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, or ABILITIES
- Experience with enterprise data structures, project hierarchies, financial master data, and reporting logic that support portfolio governance and management reporting.
- Experience improving financial systems, planning tools, or capital tracking solutions that increase transparency and repeatability.
- Experience in multi-brand, restaurant, retail, or similarly complex operating environments with shared service and technology investment complexity.
- DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY:
- Manages process and supports governance structures related to enterprise capital planning and CAPCOM operating cadence.
- Ensures compliance with required analytical standards, business case expectations, portfolio frameworks, and data structures used to evaluate investments.
- Approves portfolio readiness for executive review and determines when additional analysis, sensitivity work, or issue resolution is required before escalation.
- Provides capital allocation perspective, scenario framing, and trade-off analysis to support executive decision-making in accordance with company governance processes.
DIRECT REPORTS
- Senior Manager, Finance 6 Enterprise Capital Planning
- Total organization of 5 employees
